Extended Follow Friday for February 12, 2010 @HillaryRubin #ff #followfriday

I was attending a yoga class with my beloved teacher Naime Jezzeny while doing my first Anusara Teacher Training over at City Yoga (waaaaay back in the day ;) ), when it was time to do handstands. That day I partnered with a woman that I’ve never met before, I’d seen her around in class, but never engaged personally with her. As we worked on our handstands she began to ‘teach’ handstand to me. I initially was like “who do she think she is?”, but then after I softened my ego, I recognized that all the teaching that she was offering was right on! In fact I believe that was the first time that I found strong and full balance in that pose.

That woman was Hillary Rubin.

From that day on I was intrigued by Hillary. I watched her learn. I watched her grow. I watched her daily become more of the power house that she is today. We also became great friends and collaborators.

Hillary has taught me so much about life and living your yoga as yourself. She’s never stopped choosing for herself. Whatever she puts her mind to she’s on it, and believe me does she make things happen! I’ve also observed her develop into one of the most genuine and open teachers with whom I’ve had the blessing to practice. One of the best things about Hillary both as a teacher and a human being is that she is willing to fail. She is willing to take risks. She is willing to fall. She recognizes mistakes, misalignments, misadventures, becomes responsible for them and chooses again, refining her process daily. She does this quite openly, and it’s truly inspiring to watch.

So, Hillary Rubin is my pick for #FF this week, not only because she’s my friend, but also because she is truly worth following. This woman is cultivating great things and watch out world, I believe she can shift the planet! :D

Other than following her on twitter @hillaryrubin, you can find her at her blog http://hillaryrubinblog.com, where she posts wonderful videos that focus on cultivating your self in a very grounded and transparent way. They are ‘life teachings’ that you can apply to your life, whether you practice yoga or not. You can also check out http://hillaryrubin.com, where you can see her in a more business sense ;) Plus, you can get her DVD!!! Which I have to say is one of THE BEST yoga dvd’s out there. You must get it!

If you would like to experience Hillary’s teachings virtually you can via her audio podcast Hillary’s Yoga Practice! So much to choose from!

So get to it! follow @hillaryrubin and say hello for me :D

Wanna learn a bit more about the why behind my extended #FF #followfriday? Check out my prior post please :)

PS

Ooooooh, I almost forgot! Hillary will be participating in a pretty extraordinary event called The Virtual World Yoga Conference! Sounds pretty darn fancy! I'm so very thankful that she gifted me with a ticket to attend :D You can find the details of what she will be teaching HERE The entire conference (with a lot more presenters and opportunities for self growth and learning) is $197 BUT Hillary is offering a promo code that takes $100 off

I KNOW! $100 off! It’s HLR219

Twitter's Follow Friday and the Quest for the Why?

What Does Follow Friday Mean To You?

I started with that question.

Actually the question was "what does #followfriday mean to me?" brought about by this interesting twitter practice, that uses either the #followfriday or #ff hashtags to recommend people to follow on twitter (on Fridays of course ;) ). At first I found it very helpful, especially when I saw the recommendations of other folks. I loved to see who people were talking about and often did just that: followed new people. 

Here is a great article about Follow Friday, if you'd like to know more :)

As the practice evolved and Twitter grew, I began to see that on Fridays people who were recommending people were adding as many twitter handles as they could within 140 characters and often times not just with one tweet but using up to three or more tweets recommending quite a bit of people. Those meant nothing to me. I just started to see a bunch of names scrolling down my twitter timeline, with no value to me. I rarely got an insight into who these folks were that were being recommended. A lot of the time they weren't even recommended by the person I was following but the person was simply retweeting someone else's #followfriday recommendations. Any insight that I would have gleaned from the recommendation was lost, as often times I gained insight not only from the recommendations but from the person doing the recommending. There was some sort of exchange of something more than just twitter handles. That was now lost to me. 

It was the lack of meaning and value that made me question #followfriday as a whole. I questioned whether or not I wanted to participate. I questioned if this whole #followfriday thing was worth anything? I do think that it's worth it. I came to that conclusion by simply asking what it meant to me, beyond just Twitter, and hashtagging. What I loved about this practice from the beginning was a deeper knowing of other people. I was missing the Why?

Meaning comes from you

So, I've decided to share, on Fridays a person, organization, company, or product that I find valuable on Twitter with more than 140 characters. I'll either write a blog post, share a picture or even some audio about the chosen subject and then twitter about it. There are so many incredible folks on Twitter, some that I know personally, some that I know virtually through Twitter, and some that I don't know at all, but admire from afar. It's in the sharing of these wonderful people or organizations in a deeper way that holds meaning to me. Follow Friday is about asking what holds meaning to me and how am I going to share this to add value for others. 

It is in your own individual expression that the gift of social media becomes unraveled. 

What are your thoughts about Follow Friday?

What does Follow Friday mean to you?

I'd love to know your thoughts!

Oh, and stay tuned for the special Friday posts :) Starting next week? Or maybe later on this beautiful Friday :)